Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
And Moses Was Content To Dwell
In Acts chapter seven, Stephen is preaching to the Jews, and in his sermon he reveals that Moses was a man called and equipped by God to fulfill the Lord’s purpose for his life. In Acts 7:22-35 Stephen reveals three powerful things concerning Moses' calling:
- Moses was gifted by God: Acts 7:22 — "And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." Moses was mighty in words and deeds because God had deposited gifts into this man’s life; his abilities came from the Lord.
- Moses shared God’s heart for the oppressed: Acts 7:23,24 — "And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed..." In this Scripture we see that Moses was beginning to share God’s heart for the oppressed.
- Moses recognized the call of God upon his life: Acts 7:25 — "For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them." This Scripture tells us that Moses clearly understood that God had called him to deliver His people from their bondage.
This is what we have to understand: As important as these three things are — having the right gifts to fulfill your particular calling, sharing God’s heart for the oppressed, and recognizing the call of God upon your life — Moses was missing the two most important ingredients that have to be found within you, if you are going to fulfill God’s call and purpose for your life. These two vital ingredients that Moses was missing were intimacy and character; we have to have a deep and intimate relationship with God, and we must possess His character.
What was God’s remedy for Moses? It was forty years in the wilderness. Acts 7:29,30 — "Then fled Moses…and was a stranger in the land of Midian…And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush."
In Acts 7:24, we see that Moses avenged one of the Hebrew children by slaying one of his Egyptian oppressors. After Moses had slain the Egyptian, he later learned that many in Egypt had found out about it. Afraid that Pharaoh would also find out and have him killed, he fled into the wilderness of Midian to escape for his life. Little did he know it was God’s hand that had brought him to Midian, because God needed to cultivate intimacy and character before He could truly fulfill His purpose through the life of Moses.
FIRST, LET’S TALK ABOUT INTIMACY WITH GOD.
UNDERSTAND: GOD BROUGHT MOSES INTO THE WILDERNESS TO CULTIVATE AN INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP.
Exodus 2:15-21a — "Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian…Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flocks. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon today? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds… And he said unto his daughters, …call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with this man."
The Bible tells us that Moses was content to dwell with a priest named Reuel, and there is a wonderful, spiritual truth revealed in this. Reuel is a Hebrew word which means "friend of God". The wonderful, spiritual truth that we learn from this is that God brought Moses to the place in his heart where he was simply content with just being a friend of God, content with just walking in relationship with God.
Remember Acts 7 tells us that in Egypt Moses was a man mighty in word and in deed, and this statement speaks volumes. This tells us that Moses' whole identity was centered around accomplishment and achieving great and mighty exploits. This is where Moses found his personal worth and value, in achievement. God brought him to the place where he was no longer focused on accomplishing great and mighty things, but he was simply focused on his relationship with God. We need to understand that it was not an easy work. Moses had to die to this need to be successful and to achieve, but God was faithful to bring Moses to that place in his heart where he truly understood and rested in the truth that his identity and value was found in the Lord, and the most precious thing to his heart was his walk with the Lord.
Looking at Moses in his early years, sadly, we can compare him to many in the ministry today, ministers whose whole focus is to accomplish things that look great in the eyes of men and build grand buildings and edifices. So many ministers determine their success in the ministry by the size of their ministries and the splendor of their great buildings. It is because they feel like this is what gives them their personal worth and value, but all God is desiring is that they would take their eyes off of trying to be a great success in the ministry and simply focus their hearts on Him, walking with Him and cultivating that deep intimate relationship with Him.
UNDERSTAND: IN THE WILDERNESS, MOSES CAME TO THE PLACE OF SIMPLY WALKING WITH GOD IN THE ORDINARY AFFAIRS OF LIFE.
Exodus 3:1 — "Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb."
In the wilderness of Midian, Moses became a simple shepherd, daily taking care of sheep, and we need to understand that it is in the ordinary affairs of our lives that God cultivates a life of intimacy with His people. We may be working in a fast-food restaurant or stocking shelves in a grocery store, but when our hearts are fixed upon the Lord, God uses these ordinary places to lead us into a deep and personal love-relationship with Himself.
Also see this: according to Exodus 3:1, Moses was leading the sheep to graze around the mountain of God, and he had no idea that God was preparing him for the day that he would lead a whole nation of people out of bondage to meet with God at this very mountain. We need to understand, as we walk with God one day at a time in the ordinary affairs of life, that we have no idea what God is preparing us for. Only God knows His purposes for our lives, and He calls us to set our hearts fully upon Him, being faithful a day at a time with the things He puts before us to do.
SECONDLY, LET’S TALK ABOUT THE CHARACTER OF GOD.
Exodus 2:21a — "And Moses was content to dwell with the man..."
Many times before when I read this Scripture, I used to think that the word "content" meant satisfied, that Moses was satisfied to dwell with Reuel. Webster’s dictionary defines contentment as "satisfaction", and this was my understanding of this word "content" found in Exodus 2:21.
But studying this word "content", I saw that this is the Hebrew word yaal, and it means "to yield". When I saw this, God opened it up to my understanding. God revealed to me that in bringing Moses to the wilderness of Midian, God finally brought Moses to the place where he was yielded to the work God wanted to do in his heart, and he was yielded to the place where God wanted to do His work. In yielding, God was going to produce His character in Moses.
UNDERSTAND: OUR CHARACTER MUST MATCH OUR CALLING.
One of the tragedies I have seen in this generation is that so many in the church are so focused on men's and women’s gifts. If someone has a great gift, we immediately take that person and place him or her on a pedestal. We love to take people who are great speakers, teachers and singers and put them in the spotlight, but because they do not have the character of Christ, they end up falling. This is one of the main reasons why so many ministers in the body have fallen, because people have elevated their gift and did not allow God to do a sound work in their hearts first.
Beloved, it is in us yielding to His hand that God works on any and all character weaknesses that the devil will try to exploit in order to destroy the minister and his calling. It is a vital work!
UNDERSTAND: THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE IN THE BODY WHO, LIKE MOSES, HAVE GIFTS AND RECOGNIZE THE CALL OF GOD UPON THEIR LIFE. HOWEVER, WHAT GOD DESIRES TO SPEAK TO THEIR HEART IS, “TAKE YOUR FOCUS OFF OF YOUR GIFTS AND YOUR CALLING AND PLACE IT UPON YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ME, YIELDING TO MY HAND AND ALLOWING ME TO WORK IN YOUR HEART.”
UNDERSTAND: THE PLACE OF YIELDING IS NOT ALWAYS AN EASY PLACE, BUT GOD’S GRACE IS SUFFICIENT.
Exodus 2:15b — "...And Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian..."
The Hebrew word for Midian is Midyan, and it means "contention, discord, turmoil". I see a truth in this, the truth being that Midian was not an easy place for Moses. There were a lot of inner-wars and inner-conflicts that went on in Moses' heart because he had to die to a lot of things, particularly pride and his flesh. We have to know that when we yield to the fashioning hand of God, He is going to allow us to go through hard circumstances, trials and fires to do His work. We need to understand that being molded into a vessel that God can use is not about keeping our flesh comfortable, but it’s about yielding and letting God work in our hearts. God’s grace is sufficient to see us through these times and trials, and we need to continue to yield our hearts, cleaving to His grace that is so freely available to us, and letting His power work in our lives.
So often in times of great trials, we wonder where God’s power is at because we are not being delivered from these painful difficulties and hardships, however, God’s power is upon our lives because He is sustaining us through it all. We cry out, “Oh God, where is your power? Why aren’t you delivering me out of this?” Often, God’s loving and compassionate response is, “Because I have placed you here to do a deep work in your heart, and I am not bringing you out until it is done. Just know this: I love you, and I am with you, and my grace is sufficient to see you through. When I do bring you out, there is going to be such a deep, needful and wonderful work done in your heart.”
QUESTION: IN THE LIFE OF MOSES, WHAT WAS THE END RESULT OF 40 YEARS OF YIELDING?
Numbers 12:1-3 — "And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, ‘Hath the Lord indeed spoken only to Moses? Hath he not spoken also by us?' And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)"
The end result of yielding 40 years to the fashioning hand of God was meekness!
What is meekness? Meekness is "strength under control". Meek people are those who possess an inner strength because they have come to that place in their hearts where they are absolutely governed by the Holy Spirit. When the Word of God says that Moses was the meekest man on earth, what this is saying is that there was not another person on the planet who was more yielded to the leadership of the Holy Spirit than this man, Moses.
UNDERSTAND: A MEEK PERSON IS ONE WHO HAS COME TO THE PLACE WHERE HE OR SHE IS NO LONGER GOVERNED BY THEIR FRUSTRATIONS, FEARS, FEELINGS AND THEIR FLESH, BUT THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS ABSOLUTE PRE-EMINENCE OVER THE REACTIONS THAT STEM FORTH FROM THE HEART.
Meekness shines the brightest in the times of frustration, persecution and pain, because instead of responding or reacting out of the attitudes that rise up in the heart, a meek person lets the Holy Spirit govern his reactions and the words that come out of his mouth. Those 40 years in the wilderness, Moses learned to yield his anger, frustration, impatience and hurt feelings over to the Lord and let the Spirit of God govern his responses.
HOW DID MOSES COME TO THIS PLACE OF SUCH MEEKNESS? BY CRUCIFYING SELF AND LEARNING TO YIELD TO GOD
This meekness does not come over night, but as we walk with God, laying hold of the grace that is available to us and yielding to the work He wants to do in our lives, it is then that the government of God continually increases in our life.
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD HAVE PRE-EMINENCE OVER OUR HEART AND LIFE?
Zechariah 4:6b — “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
When it comes to building God’s kingdom, all of our works must be guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, or everything we are trying to build will all crumble. When the Holy Spirit has pre-eminence over your life, you are building things that are eternal.
AS WE HAVE SEEN IN THE LIFE OF MOSES, IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO YIELD TO THE WORK THAT GOD DESIRES TO DO IN OUR HEARTS. WHAT IS THE EVIDENCE OF A YIELDED LIFE?
- Restraint: In other words, a yielded life is one that has become planted. When the going gets tough, we understand it is simply because God is doing a deep work in our hearts. With this understanding, we do not go looking for easier and more comfortable places, but we cleave to grace and stay put, allowing God to do His work.
- Repentance: If God is going to use our lives like He desires, He is going to deal with the issues of our hearts: pride, envy, strife, bitterness, etc. As God deals with these areas, there will be much repentance and yielding these things over to the Lord. Know this, a life of repentance is not a morbid thing. There is so much joy in yielding and allowing God to work in these areas of our hearts. God will always crown the repentant heart with much joy.
- Rest: Going back to the beginning of our message, there is so much rest in being content with just being a friend of God, knowing that out of our relationship, He will use our lives like He desires to use them. We do not have to strive in our own zeal and ambition to do something great for the Lord, but ministry is simply letting Him work in and through our lives, doing what He wants to do.
Beloved, as vessels that God desires to use to build His kingdom and be glorified through, it is so important to pursue a life of intimacy with God — loving Him and seeking His face in the Word of God. It is so important to yield our hearts to Him so He can do His work, producing His character, that Christ can be seen, shining through our lives.
When we possess these qualities, we can rest assured: God will be glorified, and we will bear much fruit.